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By Hugh SonBLOOMBERG NEWS • Sunday August 18, 2013 11:27 AM

NEW YORK — Merrill Lynch & Co., the 99-year-old firm known for its “thundering herd” of
brokers pitching stocks to Main Street, might cease to exist as a legal entity more than four years
after being acquired by Bank of America.

Although Bank of America will keep the Merrill Lynch brand for its retail brokerage and
investment bank, the company based in Charlotte, N.C., plans to dissolve the subsidiary as early as
the fourth quarter, according to an Aug. 2 filing. The firm will assume all of Merrill Lynch’s
obligations and debt.

Bank of America, the second-biggest U.S. lender by assets, is simplifying its structure after
CEO Brian Moynihan’s predecessor bought Merrill Lynch in 2009. Merging the legal entity could help
Moynihan hit his $8-billion-a-year cost-cutting target and comply with regulators who want to make
the biggest banks easier to resolve in a crisis.

“Less-complex structures would increase the success of resolution planning via living wills in
the case of potential worst-case financial distress scenarios,” David Hendler, an analyst at
CreditSights Inc., said Friday in an email with the subject line “Bye Bye Merrill Lynch &
Co.?"

Dissolving the legal entity also ends Merrill Lynch’s need to file separate regulatory
disclosures. Jerry Dubrowski, a spokesman for the bank, declined to comment. Merrill Lynch had
about $62 billion in long-term debt as of the second quarter, Hendler said. The move shouldn’t
affect Merrill Lynch bonds because spreads already have converged with those of the parent company,
Hendler said.

According to a company history, founder Charles Merrill solidified his reputation on Wall Street
by advising clients to sell stocks before the crash of 1929. The firm went public in 1971 and later
in the decade introduced its corporate logo, the charging bull.

Merrill Lynch had about 14,000 financial advisers as of the second quarter, excluding those
working at bank branches. Bank of America’s entire staff was 257,158.